NEW DELHI: After snatching away the bellwether tag from TCS after a gap of four years, Vishal Sikka’s Infosys is now on track to do the unthinkable – steal Cognizant’s number one crown.

Sikka has led Infosys to the number one position in the IT space within 21 months of becoming the first non-founding CEO of the 35-year-old IT behemoth.

And, now he has his sight set on Cognizant.

Cognizant’s first quarter results, announced on Friday, were disappointing, to say the least. The company reported its slowest quarterly revenue growth in 14 years at 10 per cent and trimmed the upper end of its full-year revenue guidance to 13 per cent from 14 per cent earlier.

Where Cognizant went timid, Infosys went bold.

Infosys has suggested a revenue growth of 11.8-13.8 per cent in constant currency terms for the full year ending March 31, 2017. That puts it in line to beat Cognizant in revenue growth for the first time in 13 years and only the fifth time since 1996.

Should that materialise, it will make Infosys the fastest growing IT services company in the world ahead of bigger rivals TCS and Cognizant.

Infosys has already left Cognizant miles behind as far as stock performance goes. Its American depository receipt (ADR) has grown 18 per cent in the past 12 months on the NYSE while Cognizant has seen a 2.4 per cent rise on the NASDAQ.

The Teaneck, New Jersey-based Cognizant's has grown at a scorching pace under its maverick CEO Francisco D’Souza, who has led the company to newer heights.

But gone are the days of 20 per cent-plus growth rate for Cognizant and its results are an indicator of how the overall industry will perform.

“Over the years what has happened is that Cognizant growth rate is coming down from what it used to be a couple of years back. Earlier it used to be a good leading indicator. But as we have seen, the industry growth rate has been coming off over the years and the growth differential between Cognizant and performing leading Indian IT companies has reduced,” said Rahul Jain, VP, Systematix.

“To take a clear view of how the growth looks up for other Indian vendors compared with Cognizant, that comparison is becoming less and less relevant,” he said.

Cognizant’s revenue grew 21 per cent to $12.42 billion at the end of 2015 while Infosys’ dollar revenue grew 9.1 per cent in FY2016.

But that’s not a concern for Ravi Menon of Elara Capital, who thinks after outdoing TCS, Infosys may very well surpass Cognizant because of its lower base.

“We have seen TCS grow a little slower than Infosys and this year we may see Infosys probably pulling itself up to the top of the pack, maybe ahead of Cognizant. This is possible. People who have a smaller base and who are really competitive will actually do better,” he said.

If the numbers come good, Infosys would script one of the most glorious comeback stories by the end of March 31, 2017.